Yemen swore in a new president to replace Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had ruled the small Arabian Peninsula nation for almost 34 years, and in Afghanistan, two U.S. military officers were shot and killed, according to media reports.

In Yemen, a car bomb outside the presidential compound in the southern city of Mukalia reportedly killed at least 25 people, just hours after Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was sworn in as the first new president since 1978.

In Syria, the government said in a state-run newspaper that Saudi Arabia is becoming a “partner” in the bloodshed in the country, where activists said at least 68 people were killed as government forces pounded rebel-held neighborhoods in the central city of Homs, Associated Press reported.

Reuters

Debris and houses damaged by Syrian government shellng in the opposition-held area of Bab Amro in Homs.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it has failed for a second day on Saturday to get access to a besieged neighborhood in the city of Homs to evacuate wounded civilians as well as at least two Western journalists in a government shelling earlier this week, the AP reported.

The Yemen bombing came after Hadi was sworn in. Saleh is scheduled formally hand over power on Monday according to reports. Saleh’s resignation and the single-candidate election that Hadi won were part of a process brokered by Yemen’s neighbors in an attempt to end a year of protests and violence.

Hadi, in a televised speech before parliament, vowed to keep up Yemen’s fight against al Qaeda-linked militants, AP reported, adding that element has taken advantage of the upheaval to seize control of several areas. BBC cited an AFP report, quoting an unnamed military official who linked Saturday’s bombing to al Qaeda.

The killings of the two American officers in a heavily guarded area inside an Afghan government ministry marked a fifth straight day of violent protests after the burning of copies of the Koran at a U.S. base, the Los Angeles Times cited U.S. officials as saying.

There were at least five more deaths, the paper quoted Afghan authorities as saying, adding the deaths occurred primarily in clashes between Afghan security forces and demonstrators, some of them armed.

It added Saturday’s fatalities brought the death toll since the riots began Tuesday to more than 30, four of them Americans, with hundreds more injured.

President Obama has apologized over the Koran burning and Afghan officials have also called for calm, even though both efforts have so far failed to stop the clashes, igniting concerns about whether the Afghan government and an international force numbering more than 100,000 troops could restore order, the Times reported.

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